Serial optical data links are well known in the art. Typically, in a serial optical data link, a single mode optical fiber is used to provide optical coupling between a single mode laser source and a detector. Since data is transmitted serially over just one fiber, the speed of this type of previously known data link is limited to the capacity of the one fiber and the associated source and detector. Greater data transmission speed is needed than that which is provided by presently available and affordable serial optical data links. Unfortunately, increasing speed of serial data links is a costly proposition. Furthermore, single mode fibers are especially vulnerable to optical mis-alignment with sources and detectors, further adding to cost of previously known serial data links.
What is needed is a parallel optical data link using multimode optical components.